Chang Mengyang, Li Bin, Liao Meijie, Rong Xiaojun, Wang Yingeng, Wang Jinjin, Yu Yongxiang, Zhang Zheng, Wang Chunyuan
Key Laboratory of Sustainable and Development of Marine Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Qingdao, China.
College of Fishers and Life Science, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai, China.
Front Physiol. 2022 Jul 21;13:929094. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.929094. eCollection 2022.
MicroRNAs, as one of the post-transcriptional regulation of genes, play an important role in the development process, cell differentiation and immune defense. The sea cucumber is an important cold-water species, known for its excellent nutritional and economic value, which usually encounters heat stress that affects its growth and leads to significant economic losses. However, there are few studies about the effect of miRNAs on heat stress in sea cucumbers. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze miRNA expression in the body wall of sea cucumber between the control group (CS) and the heat stress group (HS). A total of 403 known miRNAs and 75 novel miRNAs were identified, of which 13 miRNAs were identified as significantly differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) in response to heat stress. A total of 16,563 target genes of DEMs were predicted, and 101 inversely correlated target genes that were potentially regulated by miRNAs in response to heat stress of sea cucumbers were obtained. Based on these results, miRNA-mRNA regulatory networks were constructed. The expression results of high-throughput sequencing were validated in nine DEMs and four differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Moreover, pathway enrichment of target genes suggested that several important regulatory pathways may play an important role in the heat stress process of sea cucumber, including ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis, notch single pathway and endocytosis. These results will provide basic data for future studies in miRNA regulation and molecular adaptive mechanisms of sea cucumbers under heat stress.
微小RNA作为基因转录后调控的一种方式，在发育过程、细胞分化和免疫防御中发挥着重要作用。海参是一种重要的冷水性物种，以其优异的营养和经济价值而闻名，但其通常会遭遇热应激，这会影响其生长并导致重大经济损失。然而，关于微小RNA对海参热应激影响的研究较少。在本研究中，采用高通量测序技术分析对照组（CS）和热应激组（HS）海参体壁中微小RNA的表达情况。共鉴定出403个已知微小RNA和75个新的微小RNA，其中13个微小RNA被鉴定为响应热应激时显著差异表达的微小RNA（DEM）。共预测了16563个DEM的靶基因，获得了101个可能受微小RNA调控以响应海参热应激的反向相关靶基因。基于这些结果，构建了微小RNA-信使核糖核酸调控网络。通过定量实时聚合酶链反应（RT-qPCR）对九个DEM和四个差异表达基因（DEG）的高通量测序表达结果进行了验证。此外，靶基因的通路富集分析表明，几个重要的调控通路可能在海参热应激过程中发挥重要作用，包括泛素介导的蛋白水解、Notch信号通路和内吞作用。这些结果将为未来研究海参在热应激下的微小RNA调控和分子适应性机制提供基础数据。
